Previously, between Jiang Chen's two main arenas, there had been a total of eighteen sub-arena masters. All of them felt somewhat resentful of Jiang Chen's constant favoritism toward Lin Yanyu.
However, even though they harbored this discontent, none of them dared to show it. After all, the main arena master held tremendous power — he could assign tasks to whomever he pleased. That was simply the prerogative of his position.
As sub-arena masters, they could only obey the main arena master's arrangements.
Still, deep down, many of them remained unconvinced. Lin Yanyu was young, and that instinctively bred both resistance and contempt in them. He was so young — what right did he have to be given priority over them?
It was simply because he was young, and so was the main arena master. Young people had more in common with each other, more to talk about — that was why he favored him.
Now, the main arena master had made his announcement: anyone willing to take on this Supreme-level task, speak up.
But no one dared to step forward. Everyone knew that a Supreme-level task was simply beyond their capabilities. Accepting it would be pointless.
If they failed to complete it, they would have to pay compensation — clearly not worth the risk.
How much had these geniuses earned? Even if they pooled everything they had made over the past few days, it probably would not be enough to cover the penalty for a single Supreme-level task.
Under Jiang Chen's encouragement, Lin Yanyu accepted the Supreme-level task with the eighty-million bounty.
This task was considered relatively low-grade among Supreme-level tasks.
But even so, everyone was quite shocked by Lin Yanyu. Though none of them showed it on the surface, every one of them was deeply shaken inside.
When Jiang Chen saw that Lin Yanyu had accepted the task, he swept his gaze across the crowd once more. "Anyone else willing to take one?"
Jiang Chen had no desire to give anyone ammunition for gossip. He knew the strength and resources of these sub-arena masters — these tasks were absolutely beyond them.
He was only asking to save face for everyone.
Just as Jiang Chen had expected, no one stepped forward to accept a task. Clearly, everyone saw those staggering bounty amounts and understood that accepting a task and failing to complete it would mean paying back the same sum in compensation.
The mere thought of it made their hearts race with dread. Where would they find the courage to volunteer?
Jiang Chen nodded. "Since no one is interested, we will continue with the other tasks as before."
Jiang Chen collected the remaining three task scrolls and placed them on the main arena.
Everyone watched this gesture in bewilderment. What did it mean? He was gathering all three task scrolls — could it be that the main arena master... he was going to take all three tasks himself?
The three remaining tasks consisted of one alchemy task with a five-hundred-million bounty, and two general-domain tasks — one with a bounty of just over a hundred million, and another with two hundred million.
Combined, the total bounty exceeded eight hundred million.
"Is the main arena master going to take them all?"
"That is... absolutely insane!"
"That cannot be! He is probably just setting them there. After the time limit, he will probably give them up to someone else."
The sub-arena masters below were all secretly speculating. Jiang Chen's move had left them in utter turmoil, their emotions completely unsettled.
Jiang Chen paid no heed to the speculation below. He sat down at the main arena and closed his eyes in contemplation.
The contents of all three tasks were already etched into his mind. At this moment, he was mulling over solutions.
The alchemy task was indeed a considerable challenge.
A five-hundred-million bounty spoke volumes about the difficulty involved. Moreover, the task scroll noted that this task had been sitting in the Cleansing Furnace Hall for eight hundred years.
A task that no one had completed in eight hundred years — the level of expertise required was staggering.
In truth, the task itself was not particularly complex. It was simply an ancient pill recipe that was missing two ingredients.
But these two missing ingredients happened to be critically important.
Jiang Chen noted with some surprise that the requester behind this ancient recipe was not even from Pill Fire City. It came from a first-rank sect in another part of the Upper Eight Regions.
However, this first-rank sect had no connection with Jiang Chen whatsoever. Geographically, it was actually closer to the Glass Royal City.
If this were a task posted by Pill Fire City, Jiang Chen certainly would not have considered it. He had no desire to help Pill Fire City solve their problems.
Helping Pill Fire City now would be tantamount to fueling a tyrant's evil and raising a tiger that would one day turn on you.
"That this ancient recipe has actually circulated through the Divine Abyss Continent is quite a surprise. Even though the recipe calls for Heaven-grade Spiritual Medicine, a Myriad Heavens-level Alchemy Immortal might not necessarily be able to crack it."
Though Jiang Chen was not a hundred percent certain, based on the available information, this should be the ancient Form and Intent Pill.
The so-called ancient Form and Intent Pill was, in fact, a truly wondrous type of medicine. It could regrow severed limbs and cause bare bones to sprout flesh.
As long as the soul remained intact, one could even inhabit a bare skeleton and, through the Form and Intent Pill, reshape a physical body to one's heart's content.
Form and Intent — the name meant exactly what it said: shaping external form according to one's own intent.
Though classified as a Heaven-grade pill, it actually surpassed that level entirely. It was a true Heavenly Position-grade medicine.